IMAGINE being locked up for at least 22 hours a day without sunlight, fresh air or human contact. This has been one man's reality for four decades.

A list of America's 10 worst lockups, compiled by Mother Jones, has revealed an inmate at California's Pelican Bay State Prison has just marked his 40th year in solitary confinement.

He spends 22.5 hours a day alone in a 2.1m x 3.35m windowless cell.

For the remaining 90 minutes each day he is allowed into a bare concrete exercise pen.

The non-profit news organisation said its country's 10 worst lockups, including this Californian fortress of isolation, gave Guantanamo Bay and The Baghdad Central Prison - formerly known as Abu Ghraib - a run for their money.

Prisoners in solitary isolation at Pelican Bay aren't allowed phone calls and contact visits are rare. Inmates' only access the outside world outside is through their "feeding slots".

Nearly 80 prisoners at the notorious supermax have spent more than two decades on their own, while at least another 500 men and women have endured life in isolation for more than 10 years.

In the US, California has the largest prison population and the highest number of inmates in solitary confinement - about 11,000 at any given time.

Of the 3500 inmates at Pelican Bay, 1500 are held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) and Administrative Housing Unit.

Most of these prisoners will be isolated indefinitely, at the discretion of corrections staff.

Human rights advocate Charandev Singh said the outlook was similarly grim for Australian inmates with about 5 per cent of our prison population segregated.

This equates to about 1500 prisoners - who either pose a risk or are at risk - living in solitary confinement units known as supermax, high security or management units.

"In supermax prisons we're looking at men who are going into their second decade in solitary confinement in an unbroken way but often it is for week and months and years," he said.

"Very rarely is someone held in solitary confinement for just a few days at a time.

"The impacts of it mean that you churn in and out of solitary confinement - it becomes a vicious cycle."

Mr Singh, a paralegal with nearly 20 years' experience working on deaths in custody, said Australian prisoners were being driven mad by long-term solitary confinement.

"You might be in a cell for 23 to 24 hours a day," he said.

"If you do get out to exercise ... you exercise in closed cage. You might be cuffed for that exercise period.

"There's a lot of sensory deprivation so there's very little sunlight and natural air.

"But it's actually the deprivation of human contact which is the most profound sensory deprivation. Almost always visits are non-contact so they would be sitting behind glass. Even if you have a nurse or psychologist come to see you, often that assessment or consultation will happen through the trap of a cell door."

Inmates were held in solitary confinement at the discretion of prison authorities, Mr Singh said.

"There's not a single jurisdiction in Australia where there is any external review or oversight of solitary confinement," he said.

"In terms of prisoners being able to seek judicial review of their solitary confinement, there would be a handful of cases in the last two decades.

"There's very little judicial scrutiny of solitary confinement, how long people stay and the impact of it.

"The most scrutiny that happens in the community is an inquest because people who spend time in solitary confinement disproportionately die."

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Comments on this story

andoss of Sydney Posted at 4:57 PM May 13, 2013

Prison is intended to be a punishment not a holiday camp.
What was the purpose of this article?

Alex Posted at 4:54 PM May 13, 2013

This should be the punishment for all murders and rapes.

Rose of Adelaide Posted at 4:50 PM May 13, 2013

The comments here are truly disturbing and show little to no insight into the long term ramifications of this type of 'punishment'. many of these prisoners will eventually be released and, if they weren't completely dehumanized before they went in they sure as hell will be by the time they are let out. There is a case for for the term of your natural life (no parole) but, if a prisoner is at some point to be released we ought to be making damn sure that every effort has been made to rehabilitate them as best we can. Prisons should not be 'soft' but they shouldn't be cruel places that turn out prisoners in worse shape than when they went in!! Victims rights are paramount but they are in fact separate to prisoner rights.

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